Domee Shi, who helmed the charming, innovative and heartfelt Disney/Pixar short film Bao, is going to make her feature debut for Pixar. The as yet unnamed project is in development.

Screening in front of the blockbuster Incredibles 2Bao follows a Chinese-Canadian woman who gets a second chance at motherhood when one of her handmade dumplings suddenly comes to life. With Bao, Shi became the 20th helmer to direct a Pixar short since the mid-1980s and the the first woman to do so. Although it started out with “doodling outside of work,” Shi was given the opportunity to pitch Pixar on three short concepts in 2016, in a studio open call.

Shi will be just the second woman director to helm a Pixar feature. Brenda Chapman, co-director of 2012’s “Brave and the first woman hired as a Pixar director, was taken off her film before it reached theaters. Continue reading on THE WEEK IN WOMEN.

Brandy McDonnell

Brandy McDonnell writes features and reviews movies, music, events and the arts for The Oklahoman, Oklahoma's statewide newspaper, and NewsOK.com, the state's largest news Web site.
Raised on a farm near Lindsay, Okla., she started her journalism career in seventh grade, when she was elected reporter for her school's 4-H Club. Taking her duties seriously, she began submitting stories to The Lindsay News, and worked for the local weekly through high school.
She attended Oklahoma State University, where she worked for The Daily O'Collegian and earned her journalism degree with honors.
She worked for three years at small Oklahoma dailies The Edmond Sun and Shawnee News-Star. In 2002, she joined The Oklahoman as a features reporter, writing about movies, the arts, events, families and nonprofits. She moved to The Oklahoman's entertainment desk in 2007.
In 2004, she won a prestigious Journalism Fellowship in Child & Family Policy from the University of Maryland's Philip Merrill College of Journalism.
Along with her membership in AWFJ, she also is a founding member of the Oklahoma Film Critics Circle. Brandy writes The Week In Women blog for AWFJ.org.

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